A report on Gamasutra relates an analyst's theory that Amazon is planning an online store where games can be purchased for download. Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian sent a note to investors saying online job listings indicate this plan is in the works, quoting listings calling for "an experienced senior software engineer to lead the design and construction of next generation, breakthrough online video game and software distribution technology," and saying that Amazon is "changing the video game and software digital distribution market and quickly expanding."

Verno wrote on Mar 29, 2010, 09:28:Steam's DRM is trivial at worst and easily overcome

Any DRM including Starforce is easily overcome if you use a publicly available crack. But, cracking Steam's DRM yourself isn't trivial in the least. Steam's DRM is sophisticated and quite restrictive, and while it is easier to reverse engineer and crack than Starforce and SecuROM, that's like saying that heart surgery is easier to perform than neurosurgery.

your bank account could suddenly become locked and you would have to contact your local ombudsman if they refused to cooperate. There are plenty of ridiculous scenarios one can envision about everything.

You can certainly envision ridiculous scenarios because your example definitely is. Comparing banking regulations to Steam's policies and terms of use is outright laughable.

There's nothing theoretical or far-fetched about losing access to one's Steam account including the permanent loss of it. It can happen for many different reasons including forgotten password, account hijacking, credit-card chargeback, using prohibited speech on Steam's forums or other communications channels. Valve's unilateral authority and self-described "zero tolerance" enforcement of Steam's subscriber agreement and policies not only make such account loss possible, but also risky since Steam is a universal kill switch to all of a user's games which require it. Losing access to one's Steam account has happened to many people, and it is so common that Valve has FAQ pages dedicated to the subject on the Steam website.

I have lost access to a Steam account, and it took several days and some digging through records on my part to get it back. If all of my games had been tied to that account, I would have been even more pissed off about not being able to play them during that time. If you personally want to use Steam, then use it, but you shouldn't mislead others about the risks of doing so because they're real and spelled out in writing if you're willing to read the fine print.

I'm sure I'd hate Steam if I regularly resold games but I actually like hanging onto mine so that I can play them years later. Steam's DRM is trivial at worst and easily overcome, that's not really a concern. Your games live on your hard drive after all, this isn't OnLive. I share the concern about Steam accounts integrity but you can say that about many things in life - your bank account could suddenly become locked and you would have to contact your local ombudsman if they refused to cooperate. There are plenty of ridiculous scenarios one can envision about everything.

May I ask why you only buy on Steam? Why not the other DD services, or retail when it's the only option? That seems odd to me, to choose one store to use exclusively.

Probably having everything in one easy to access spot. A lot of people have considerable disposable income and don't care to spend the time bargain hunting.

RaZ0r! wrote on Mar 28, 2010, 14:55:Old school. I can appreciate that. I used to be the same way. Now I use Steam exclusively. If a game is not available on Steam, then I don't own it.

All that space on my bookshelves that used to be wasted on my 'PC Gaming Shrine' now holds much more useful stuff.

Buying a boxed copy of a game is not like it used to be now anyway. It's a very thin plastic case, with a disc or two, and a 2 page manual. Same packaging consoles use, and that's a waste of my time.

Well, some games still have some good packaging. The Mass Effect 2 Limited Edition is freaking bad-ass, I love that thing and caress it at night. Helps the game is so awesome as well. Grand Theft Auto 4 has a great, great retail box package; I hope they do the same for the expansion.

I agree on the whole though that boxes now-a-days mostly suck.

As someone also said, the DRM thing with Steam bothers me too, so it's not just about boxes. As I said in my post, DRM in music and games online bugs me, and most games have less DRM at retail, the before mentioned Mass Effect 2 having none at all. Why choose an activated online account-based model over no DRM at all? No thanks.

That's me though.

May I ask why you only buy on Steam? Why not the other DD services, or retail when it's the only option? That seems odd to me, to choose one store to use exclusively.

StingingVelvet wrote on Mar 28, 2010, 11:01:Games... obviously some of them now are digital only, and for smaller games that's fine, but I still like getting my store-bought boxed copies. Usually they have less DRM, if someday I have to crack them to get them to work I want the boxed copy there to show I own the game, and more to the point PC gaming is "my thing" and I like collecting the packages.

Old school. I can appreciate that. I used to be the same way. Now I use Steam exclusively. If a game is not available on Steam, then I don't own it.

All that space on my bookshelves that used to be wasted on my 'PC Gaming Shrine' now holds much more useful stuff.

Buying a boxed copy of a game is not like it used to be now anyway. It's a very thin plastic case, with a disc or two, and a 2 page manual. Same packaging consoles use, and that's a waste of my time.

Two things I don't like about Steam is its DRM and tied to one account. If anything happens to my Steam account and unable to recover it, there goes all my games. ALso, I can't resell my games.

StingingVelvet wrote on Mar 28, 2010, 11:01:Games... obviously some of them now are digital only, and for smaller games that's fine, but I still like getting my store-bought boxed copies. Usually they have less DRM, if someday I have to crack them to get them to work I want the boxed copy there to show I own the game, and more to the point PC gaming is "my thing" and I like collecting the packages.

Old school. I can appreciate that. I used to be the same way. Now I use Steam exclusively. If a game is not available on Steam, then I don't own it.

All that space on my bookshelves that used to be wasted on my 'PC Gaming Shrine' now holds much more useful stuff.

Buying a boxed copy of a game is not like it used to be now anyway. It's a very thin plastic case, with a disc or two, and a 2 page manual. Same packaging consoles use, and that's a waste of my time.

Music is the only thing I really like buying digitally and amazon is where I do it. Lovely store, great prices, no DRM what-so-ever.

Movies/TV shows I like having on disc, mostly because online stores all have ridiculous DRM attached but also because it's just easier to pop the disc in my DVD player.

Games... obviously some of them now are digital only, and for smaller games that's fine, but I still like getting my store-bought boxed copies. Usually they have less DRM, if someday I have to crack them to get them to work I want the boxed copy there to show I own the game, and more to the point PC gaming is "my thing" and I like collecting the packages.

So... there is a ton of useless info on my life that amounts to: I don't care about amazon game downloads. Yay.

MP3's can't have DRM. It's not part of the file format. It would have to be some kind of other file.

(Other answer: Amazon MP3s are DRM-free, tagged, named, and have a VBR with something like a 225kbs average. There's a nice downloader app that makes downloading large albums easy (it's not always running). They also have daily sales of music that you may actually want.)